A Special Message From the President of Nerd Louisville

My name is Jonathan Meadows and I am the President of Nerd Louisville. As a financial supporter of Nerd Louisville in 2017, I wanted to share details with you related to how the money you have donated to Nerd Louisville has been used in the community. As you all know, Nerd Louisville's mission is to make Louisville, Kentucky the most awesome nerd city in the universe by fostering a sense of community, providing a hub to connect local nerds, and by promoting Louisville as a nerd destination. We also seek to educate, inspire, and empower local youth. In pursuit of our mission, we have created the Next-Gen Nerds initiative, an initiative focused around the youth in our community and helping to cultivate the next generation of nerds in and around Louisville. We've accomplished so much this year, and that is all because of your support.

A Partnership with the Louisville Free Public Library

In early 2017, Ned Louisville partnered with the Louisville Free Public Library to donate several Dungeons & Dragons 5th edition books. The books are now in regular circulation and from what we understand, are being checked out regularly by the Louisville community. We've also been involved in several Louisville Free Public Library events, including tabletop game nights and the how-to festival.

Game Designer Kenneth Hite Runs Trail of Cthulhu for Students at Iroquois High School

When students at Iroquois High School expressed interest in Lovecraftian horror, we brought one of the masters of the genre to the school to run his own game, Trail of Cthulhu for the students. Ken was even kind enough to sign a copy of his book and leave it with local teacher Don Bacon to give to one lucky student on his graduation day as a gift.

Board Game Donation to The de Paul School

In April, Nerd Louisville board members and volunteers hosted an after-school board game night for students at The de Paul School and then donated several hundred dollars worth of games to the school's "Games of the World" club.

Battletech Miniature Donation to Knight Middle School

Nerd Louisville donated three sets of Battletech miniatures to Knight Middle School for their after school gaming group including an “Age of Sigmar” starter set and two “Start Collecting!” boxes worth over $300!

Sending a Local Student to Club SciKidz Summer Camp

In the summer of 2017, Nerd Louisville sent a local student that lost his house in a fire to Club SciKidz, a week-long science, technology, engineering, and math summer camp. This student attended the Quad Copter Aerial Robotics Camp and by all accounts, had the time of his life!

Dungeons & Dragons Book Donation to the Boyd & Girls Club of Kentuckiana

Over the summer, the Shawnee Boys & Girls Club reached out to us and requested a donation of Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition books for their gaming club. Nerd Louisville worked with the club and donated copies of all of the 5th edition core books to them.

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Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Kentuckiana Head to the Kentucky Science Center

In July, we partnered with Big Brothers & Big Sisters of Kentuckian to send several kids to a Makerspace Family Workshop at the Kentucky Science Center. This family-friendly makerspace workshop was led by The Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana. The program was open to both boys and girls and provided a great opportunity for kids to get involved in the exciting makerspace movement.

What's Next For Nerd Louisville?

We have a lot that we're planning to do in the remainder of 2017. Over the next few months, we plan to make a donation of a Macbook and several GoPro cameras to the students of Knight Middle School and we have other projects that we're currently vetting. We're only able to do these things because of your support, and I want to personally thank you for the difference you have made in the lives of so many Next-gen Nerds.

You can always stay up to date with what we're doing at our website: http://www.nerdlouisville.org/ and we hope that while you're there, you'll consider hitting the donate button and helping us fund more projects like these.